


Things We Left

by morningstarzip



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Aftermath, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-07
Updated: 2012-02-07
Packaged: 2017-10-30 18:04:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/334568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morningstarzip/pseuds/morningstarzip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Long after the War, after the warriors had drifted apart and gone their separate ways into life and eventually death, archivists from the Federation, Bajor, and even Cardassia came together to sift through the belongings that had been left behind by those who had lived and fought there during that time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things We Left

Long after the War, after the warriors had drifted apart and gone their separate ways into life and eventually death, archivists from the Federation, Bajor, and even Cardassia came together to sift through the belongings that had been left behind by those who had lived and fought there during that time. What had been left behind by these Starfleet personnel and civilians had been packed away and sealed, kept safe until descendants of the original owners could reclaim them. When none could or did, the contents of those storage bins became public domain. The archivists and researchers had all been hoping to find something to highlight their world or bring more insight into what it had been like to live during that time, to find the hidden heroes behind events that had been classified information for longer than most of them had been alive. What they had found a hundred years after the end of the Dominion War left more of a mystery than they had began with.

  
_  
(written in Cardassian on a strip of fine Alezor silk that was then folded and sewn tightly shut with hand-stitching. It had been found buried in the bottom of similar scraps of throw-away cloth although none of the others had been written on.)   
_   
**If only you knew.  
If only you could fathom.  
But you cannot.**   


  
_  
(On a torn bit of paper that had been tucked into the stuffing of a handmade cushion with 'Son' stitched on it. The rip on the pillow it had been hidden in was sewn up clumsily with a mismatched string. The words were written in Terran, barely legible with the bad penmanship.)   
_   
**Suddenly I feared the absences,  
the nightmare that could come true,  
the days you pass and could pass away.**   


  
_  
(Found in just past the middle of 'Meditations on a Crimson Shadow' in the original Cardassian prose, the padd containing it found jumbled in with three other padds with the same piece of Cardassian literature on them. The other three copies did not bear these extra lines)   
_   
**There are five of these that I have, but only this one has a small truth hidden in the lie, although you must remember, there is always some truth to the lies if they are not completely so.  
I've tried to tell you before how dangerous it could be, not for me or for you but -us-.  
And still you persist.  
So I will trust in that 'Luck' that you believe in, but I never have or could.  
I'll turn off all these devices and give you one of them soon. The rest I'll dispose of, never knowing which you receive.  
For once, I hope.**   


  
_  
(The napkin was wedged in the pocket of a pair of trousers that had been folded up and put away in storage with other similar sized clothing. A smeary red lipstick print marks the middle of the wadded and alcohol stained paper.)   
_   
**They aren't you.**   


  
_  
(The message could be missed if one wasn't studying the finely done intricate miniature old-age embroidery on one of the shirts that was with the trousers under a powerful glass and had a working knowledge of the Cardassian language.)   
_   
**They threatened you once.**   


  
_  
(At the end of the CMO's draft report on an outbreak of a deadly viral flu on the station. The submitted final report did not include the extra two sentences.)   
_   
**It affects Cardassians. I have to find a cure.**   


  
_  
(Scratched on a flier in 'blessed' charcoal pencil that had been given out for writing a prayer to the Prophets during a Bajoran festival that was hosted aboard what was then called 'Deep Space Nine'.)   
_   
**Your happiness.**   


  
_  
(Noted at the end of a report on the destruction of Cardassia Prime by the CMO. There is a data signature that more followed but had been erased from the record by the author.)   
_   
**Leaving Deep Space Nine: One Cardassian – Elim Garak, tailor.**   


  
_  
(Left on a sheet of paper, outdated even then, and left between piles of clothing and other debris of a life left.)   
_   
**I took Kukalaka with me, with us. I doubted you would mind. There was precious little left after, but something is better than nothing. There is a small rise with a tree that refuses to give in and die despite conditions on my lands.  
I plan to be interred there myself.   
Wait for me.**   


Scholars have spent years arguing over what these scraps of two lives meant or even if it is only two people. There are too many questions remaining for an absolute determination to be made. The Cardassians claim that one of their people was using some Starfleet officer or high ranking civilian for their needs. The mention of Elim Garak has puzzled many of them although the official stance never says that in so many words. Elim Garak was a successful leader after the near destruction of Cardassia. How he knew these two will be a matter of contention for perhaps decades or centuries to come. Was it a spy network he had established? The Bajoran delegation believed so, that Elim Garak was leading some poor innocent woman aside, perhaps the 'Dax' or 'Tora Ziyal' that are mentioned and then listed as dead. But then who is Kukalaka? Official Starfleet logs hold no mention of anyone by that name arriving or departing. The Bajoran council has gone so far as to suggest that the Chief Medical Officer, Julian Bashir, was a traitor to his people for Cardassia, given the concern displayed in his report of the Bajoran outbreak of Svartian Flu when it affected Cardassians as well (see log reports that stardate on sicknesses in resident Elim Garak and visiting Gul Dukat). His long lasting friendship with Elim Garak is often pointed out as evidence of this traitorous suspicion. His death erased all possibility of finding the truth from him (see DS9: Shuttle Accidents: Bajor: Kratstin Mercy Mission) and what little information the Cardassian government has released gives no hint of Praetor Elim Garak's personal life. The Terran belief is that perhaps Elim Garak and Tora Ziyal (or Jadzia Dax) were lovers with Julian Bashir helping them, likening the pair to the myth of 'Romeo and Juliet' although this is generally scoffed at.


End file.
